


Honey bees

by Lori0



Series: Lori0's Rhife week 2020 [4]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe | Gender, Beekeeping, Bees, Female Cloud Strife, M/M, Rhife Week, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lori0/pseuds/Lori0
Summary: The story of how Cloud Strife, daughter of Claudia Strife and bee lover met Andrea Rhodea, owner and star of the Honeybee Inn.Day four of Rhife week. Prompt was Alternate Universe | Gender.
Relationships: Andrea Rhodea/Cloud Strife, Backgroung Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Series: Lori0's Rhife week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739986
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Honey bees

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to keep Cloud in character but this is a universe where he was born a she and with a proof that there is someone out there that will love her no matter what. It changes things.
> 
> Once again, this is not beta-ed and English isn’t my first language. Let me know if you spot any mistakes :)

Andrea is already sixteen by the time his mark starts to appear and has turned seventeen before it settles on his skin. A honeycomb, with a strangely shaped space in the bottom part of it. It doesn't change his life the way it could have, had it appeared sooner. He's already seen and done too much to believe in fairy tales. To believe that love could truly be unconditional. Still, when he comes across the tucked away little place called the Honeybee Inn, it feels a little bit like fate. The hard work he puts in to turn it into the most renowned place this side of the plate and himself into its star feels better.

…

Cloud is born wailing into the world, already bearing her mark. Claudia looks down at her daughter's flailing arms and smiles softly.

…

"Mama?" Claudia turns to her four-year-old daughter and waits for the question she knows is coming. Her little Cloud is a very curious child. "What is it?" She asks, showing her mother the inside of her left arm.

“It’s your soul-mark, baby.” Claudia tells her. A frown appears on her daughter’s face.

“I know _that_ , mama.” she says, petulant. “But what _is_ it ?”

Oh. “It’s a bee, Cloud.”

“Bee.” Her baby girl repeats. “Beeeee.” Smiles brightly. “ I like it. Beebeebeebee.” She laughs and Claudia can’t help the smile that comes to her lips as her baby runs off to play, chanting “Beeee, bee, beebeebee, b _eeee_ e.”

…

By the time she’s six, Cloud has read every book that even mentions bees that the small library of Nibelheim has to offer (not that there are that many).

By the time she’s eight, she’s managed to convince old man Douglas to teach her how to help take care of the small beehive that is the only source of honey in Nibelheim. She takes to the beekeeping lessons quickly and very seriously, wanting to get everything right. But even though old man Douglas keeps warning her to be careful, tells her about the dangers of angry bees and swarms, she never once feels wary or scared of the little flying insects that represent her soul.

As she grows and learns, she falls in love with the female driven society of bees. So different from the way most of the villagers look down on her Ma for not being married. Look down on her for preferring to run around in pants and get dirty rather than wear pretty dresses and learn to sew or crochet or whatever nonsense they’ve decided a ‘proper lady’ should know this week. It’s not that there's anything wrong with doing those things _if_ you like it. And it's not that she doesn’t want to wear pretty dresses but even if she and Ma had enough money for them, she wouldn’t want to wear them _all_ the time, the way Tifa does.

…

Cloud Strife is too busy learning about bees and beekeeping to be there when Tifa gets hurt trying to go up Mount Nibel. She doesn’t get the blame. She does, however, bring a small pot of honey to the only other young girl in the village, as a get well present. Tifa smiles at her and after that they sometimes talk when they see each other around.

Cloud still leaves for Midgar in the spring when she’s fourteen. Still tells Tifa, up there on the wind tower, and makes her a promise. She still wants to be a SOLDIER, like the great Sephiroth.

She doesn’t fail. Because she never gets the chance to try.

Shinra is nothing at all like a beehive. It’s a man's world and SOLDIER is a boy’s only club. But Cloud is nothing if not stubborn, so she takes on the first open job she can, determined to make her way to the top and change things from the inside. She sends as much of her small paycheck back to her Ma as she can and keeps working hard, stubbornly pushing on and biting back on her frustrations.

Sometimes, she wishes she could set up a small beehive somewhere, so she could watch the small insects she loves so much and let them take her mind off of things when this life gets to her. There isn’t really anywhere she could set it up, however, and there aren’t any flowers in Midgar anyway. She misses the taste of honey (she misses her home, sometimes, in the dark of the night, alone in her bed).

…

Cloud Strife is sixteen, the first time she goes down under the plate.

It was a series of accidents that led her there. The kind that feel like fate.

First came Zack. She ran into him, quite literally, (though she’ll maintain to her dying breath that _he_ ran into _her_ ) as he was coming back from a mission. He was walking fast, she had her attention on the many cups of coffee she was carrying up to the meeting room for her boss. She ended up wearing the coffee. (But Zack, in this and any other universe, is not someone Cloud could ever stay mad at, and that was that.)

Then comes Zack meeting his girlfriend (his soulmate) by falling down into her church through the roof. (Cloud’s not sure how much of that story she should take seriously.) After that comes Cloud mentioning something about flowers in one of her many conversations with him. Or maybe it was the flowers and then the girlfriend, she’s not quite sure and it doesn’t really matter.

That is how she finds herself trailing after Zack as he leads her down to the sector 5 undercity.

She and Aerith hit it off immediately, becoming fast friends, to both Zack’s delight (that his best friend and girlfriend are friends too) and despair (when they end up teaming up to tease him). Aerith teaches Cloud more about flowers and Cloud returns the favor by teaching her about bees. She finds herself going back to sector 5 again and again, with and without Zack.

She does get to set up that beehive she’s been dreaming about since she got to Midgar. She gives the first honey she collects to Aerith, who gives it to her mother. Elmyra’s honey cake might be the second best thing she’s ever tasted, right after her Ma’s honey bread. She thinks Elmyra and her Ma would get along too, like her and Aerith.

…

Strangely, it takes a long time after that for her to hear about Wall Market, almost a year. She’s half-way to eighteen by the time she learns about it and, most importantly, the Honeybee Inn. The people of sector 5 warn her about the kind of place Wall Market is. That it is dangerous for a young woman to go there alone. That the Honeybee Inn, for all its glamorous image, is still a brothel. But Cloud is intrigued by this place named after her favorite thing in the world.

Zack has been teaching her to fight, training with her in his free time. She always carries a small blade with her everywhere she goes these days. She will be fine.

And so, one early afternoon, after a morning working in the garden with Aerith and taking care of her bees. After a wonderful lunch prepared for them by Elmyra. She wanders over to sector 6, in her dirt and pollen smudged clothing.

…

“Welcome to the heart and soul of Wall Market... the Honeybee Inn.” There are a few girls in bee costumes who smile or wink at her as she makes her way in and then her attention is grabbed by the receptionist as he welcomes her. “Is there a honeyboy or girl whose company you desire?”

“Oh. Not really. I’m just… curious.” She pushes into the room, opening the door that stands opposite of where she came in. The Inn definitely went full out with the bee theme to match its name, it’s almost too much. Yet this place sings to her soul in a way not many things have in her life. She ends up sitting on the edge of the fountain, letting the feel of the room sooth her, ignoring the people coming and going around her.

…

When Andrea comes back from his work out at the gym with Jules, he stops by the desk to check in with the honeyboy who’s on reception duty today. He likes keeping up with everything that goes on in his Inn. Although there usually isn’t much to tell at this time of day.

Today is not a usual day.

“A young girl came in some time ago. Didn’t ask to see anyone. Said she was curious. From what the others tell me, she’s just been silently sitting on the fountain the whole time. She’s not making any trouble so we haven’t asked her to leave.” He explains. “Should we have?” He adds at seeing Andrea’s frown.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Andrea reassures him. “I’ll see what it’s about, then, shall I?” He doesn’t wait for an answer and goes to find this strange guest.

As he steps into the central room of the Inn, he sees her immediately. She is indeed sitting quietly, eyes half closed and head tilted back to the ceiling, looking at the honeycomb pattern of it, a small smile on her lips. She’s absolutely breathtaking. Beautiful in a way that even her poorly kept clothes doesn’t detract from. Messy blond hair flying every which way, forming a halo around her head. He thinks this might be where the myth of angels comes from.

Shaking his head at his own silly thoughts, he approaches her quietly. She’s small and slender, can’t be more than sixteen but that doesn’t mean much. Andrea himself was very far from innocent at that age.

“Hello, miss.” He says softly, not wanting to startle her. She turns to him and he is greeted by the prettiest pair of blue eyes he’s ever seen. “Can I help you?”

“Oh.” She starts and her voice makes his heart flutter in his chest like a dancing bee. “No. Sorry. Am I in the way? I’ll go.” She gets up too quickly and wobbles. Andrea reaches a hand to steady her and their hands touch, bare skin to bare skin. It’s like electricity running up his arm and she turns wide, startled eyes up at him before smiling like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.

…

The shock of electricity running up her arm and spreading down her spine startles her. Then the warmth of the hand still holding hers registers. As does the surprise in the man’s hazel eyes as he looks at her.

This man is absolutely gorgeous and she feels like the luckiest girl in the world. She can’t help the smile that breaks onto her face. His answering smile feels like coming home, a bee to the hive.

…

As they talk, exchange names and little details about their lives and kisses and stories and dreams over the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months… Andrea finds himself slowly believing that fairy tales might be real after all. That true, unconditional love does exist, if you are brave enough to let it into your life.

…

(Cloud doesn’t miss her old home anymore. She’s got everything she needs right here.)

**Author's Note:**

> Cloud definitely gets to wear pretty dresses whenever the mood strikes her now ;) And we all know that Andrea loves to play dress up whether his Cloud is a boy or a girl.
> 
> A bit of explanation of soulmarks in this universe :  
> \- The mark is always on the inside of a person’s left forearm.  
> \- The marks fit like puzzle pieces (the puzzle can have 2, 3 or more pieces, it doesn’t matter). For example, Cloud’s bee mark fits right in the empty space of Andrea’s honeycomb mark.  
> \- The marks are black and white until soulmates touch.  
> \- The first time soulmates touch skin to skin, they feel a bit of an electric shock and the mark gets colored in. (In the case of multiple mates, only part of the mark will gain color.)  
> \- In the case of the older soulmate(s), the mark starts appearing around the time of their mate's conception to become fully visible at the time of their birth. (Again, in case of multiple mates, only part of the mark will appear.)
> 
> Also, yes, Zack & Aerith are soulmates, and absolutely adorable together. In this universe, I think Aerith’s mark would be a bouquet of lilies (the same ones she grows in the church) but I haven’t decided what Zack’s would be.  
> I’d also like to believe that having a soulmate would help keep Sephiroth more stable and that Nibelheim won’t happen here. I haven’t decided who his soulmate(s) should be in this ‘verse.
> 
> I really like this 'verse and I might write more in it at some point if I ever get inspired (no promises though).
> 
> Let me know what you think? :)


End file.
